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Last Frenchwoman still competing at the Australian Open, Caroline Garcia was eliminated Monday in two sets in the round of 16 by the Polish Magda Linette.
Caroline Garcia’s journey in Melbourne is over. The French tennis player was eliminated on Monday January 23 in the round of 16 of the Australian Open, of which she was nevertheless one of the favorites. In question, a failing service and too many unforced errors.
After her semi-final at the US Open and her title at the end of the year Masters, the best of her career at 29, Caroline Garcia was expected in Melbourne.
But his risk-taking game did not allow him to gain confidence during the first three rounds and the fourth, against Magda Linette (45e), was fatal to him.
The Polish won 7-6 (7/3), 6-4. After the meeting, she had a hard time realizing. “I don’t believe it… I don’t understand what happened… I don’t have the words”, admitted Magda Linette, who will celebrate her 31st birthday on February 12 and who had never passed the third round of a Grand Slam tournament.
“The key was my service”, underlines Magda Linette
What happened was that she took advantage of Garcia’s lack of success, especially on serve, to beat her.
After the premature defeat of her compatriot and world number 1 Iga Swiatek the day before, she will therefore represent Poland alone in the quarter-finals.
“The key was my serve because it punished me when I was not effective on my face-off,” said the Pole, who posted a success rate of 75% of first serves.
For his part, Garcia, whose very risky game is very dependent on his own service, managed only 49% of first serves.
The French also conceded 33 unforced errors for 27 winning strokes, against 14 unforced errors and 25 winning strokes for Linette.
Garcia had however started the meeting with a double break which allowed him to break away 3-0. She served for the set at 5-4, but Linette picked up before dominating the tie-break.
In the second round, “Caro”, as loudly encouraged by French supporters, repeatedly exteriorized his growing frustration by hitting his racket on the ground or with a “I can’t take it anymore!”, shouted from the first. sleeve game.
Qualification from the first match point
The Pole made the decisive break to lead 5-4 and qualified on her first match point, on her serve.
It is therefore Magda Linette, who had never passed the third round in a Grand Slam, who will face the Czech Karolina Pliskova (31e) for a place in the semis.
The latter eliminated the Chinese Shuai Zhang (22e) 6-0, 6-4 in less than an hour.
Semi-finalist in Australia in 2019, Pliskova had not passed the third round there since. Ex-world number 1 (2017), she reached the finals at Wimbledon in 2021 and at the US Open in 2016.
The other quarter-final at the bottom of the table will oppose Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (5e) to the Croatian Donna Vekic (64e).
The first dismissed the Swiss Belinda Bencic (10e) 7-5, 6-2, and will play a quarter-final in Melbourne for the first time.
“I am very happy with this victory and my level of play”, welcomed the 24-year-old player, who also said she was “very happy” with her state of mind, the mind being precisely her weak point. since the beginning of his career.
She still hasn’t lost a set of the season, which started with a title at Adelaide 1.
As for Vekic, she ended up dismissing the Czech nugget Linda Fruhvirtova (82e at 17) 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.
>> To consult, the calendar and all the results of the women’s singles table of the Australian Open
With AFP
